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[Press Release: February 14th, 2005] Greens claim zoning of flood plain in Bray Development Plan poses major flood risk for townAt a public meeting held by the Green Party last week to inform the town's residents about the new Bray Town Development Plan, the Town Centre zoning that has been agreed for the flood plain of the Dargle river was the issue about which most public concern was expressed according to Green councillors.Cllr Deirdre de Burca, Cllr Caroline Burrell and Cllr Ciaran O'Brien provided the sixty people present at the public meeting in the Strand bar on Bray's seafront with detailed information on many of the changes made to the Draft Development Plan by the councillors on Bray Town Council before Christmas. "We explained to the people present that a majority of councillors supported zoning the Golf Club lands closest to the Dargle river with a Town Centre zoning" says Green councillor, Deirdre de Burca. "We told them that the Green Party totally opposed this zoning, as putting high-density commercial and retail development on this important flood plain will certainly increase the flood risk to sensitive areas of the town including Seapoint Court, Dwyer Park, the Lower Dargle area and the Coburg estate". Councillor Caroline Burrell claims that residents at the public meeting expressed considerable anger that this zoning decision had been made by a majority of councillors in the absence of any complete study having been carried out into the potential for development on the Golf Club lands to increase the flood risk to other parts of the town. "As councillors, we were asked to agree to a Town Centre zoning for the flood plain of the Dargle without being shown the results to date of the flood risk study being carried out by University College Dublin on behalf of those interested in developing the Golf Club Lands" she says. Councillor Ciaran O'Brien claims that the Green Party put forward an amendment at the council meeting last December that would have reserved a certain amount of the flood plain next to the Dargle River for recreational and open space purposes. "This kind of recreational and amenity zoning would have been in accordance with the recommendations of the Office of Public Works for development of flood plains" says o Brien. "Unfortunately the Labour Party and Fianna Fail voted against our proposal and so it was defeated. I hope those same councillors will listen to their constituents concerns and that they will replace the Town Centre zoning with a more appropriate zoning before the Development Plan is finally adopted".
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